MSc. Paul-Adrian Bulzu, Ph.D.

Funkce: Vědecký pracovník - Oddělení mikrobiální ekologie vody

Kontaktní údaje

Telefon: +420 387 77 5033
E-mail: bulzupaul@gmail.com
Web: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul_Bulzu
Místnost: 145

Popis

Research interests

My research focuses on virus-protist interactions and microbial ecology in freshwater ecosystems. Using cultivation together with genome-resolved sequencing approaches, I investigate how viruses shape the ecology and evolution of microbial eukaryotes. In particular, my work explores giant viruses of the phylum Nucleocytoviricota that infect unicellular algae and polinton-like viruses (PLVs), a group of viral elements that may function as antiviral defence systems within eukaryotic hosts.

Freshwater ecosystems provide excellent model systems for studying microbial diversity and virus-host interactions. Although lakes and reservoirs harbour immense microbial and viral diversity, many of their inhabitants remain poorly characterised. Advances in sequencing technologies now allow us to access this hidden diversity directly from environmental samples and to reconstruct genomes of both microbes and viruses without the need for cultivation. By integrating long-read sequencing, metagenomics, and metaviromics with laboratory cultivation, we aim to link environmental viral genomes to their hosts and to understand how virus-host interactions influence microbial community dynamics. A central aspect of this work is the study of virus-virus interactions, particularly those involving giant viruses and their viral parasites (virophages and polinton-like viruses). Combining environmental sequencing with experimentally tractable systems, we investigate how these interactions influence viral evolution, host genome architecture, and the dynamics of freshwater plankton communities.

My previous work in this field was centered around the identification and characterization of large collections of polinton-like viruses integrated within protist genomes. Current research continues to explore how these viral elements shape protist genome evolution and influence ecological processes during seasonal algal blooms.

Odborný životopis

Education

2014 ‒ 2019: Ph.D. in Biology (summa cum laude), Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

2011 ‒ 2013: M.Sc. in Molecular Biotechnology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

2008 ‒ 2011: B.Sc. in Biology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Employment history

01-2024 ‒ present: Associate Scientist - Department of Aquatic Microbial Ecology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Biology Centre CAS

09-2019 ‒ 12-2023: Post-doc position - Department of Aquatic Microbial Ecology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Biology Centre CAS

05-2017 ‒ 09-2019: Research Assistant - Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

04-2015 – 12-2016: Research Assistant - Institute of Interdisciplinary Research in Bio-Nano-Sciences, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Awards and grants

Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) - 25-15920S: Polinton-like Viruses: Guardians or Predators of Protists? (2025-2027)

Research mobility grant (2023): Anchoring the Biology Centre CAS in the European Research Area (ABERA), CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/18_054/0014649, Biology Centre CAS, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic

PhD Scholarship 2015-2016 - “Quality, excellence, transnational mobility in doctoral research”, Grant No. POSDRU/187/1.5/S/155383.

Online scientific profiles

Web of Science ResearcherID: AAC-8936-2021

ORCID: 0000-0002-5637-9940

Scopus ID: 56308062900

Publikace

Celkem nalezeno: 22 záznamů
Asghar U., Mukherjee I., Sonntag B., Pires de Paula C., Kasalický V., Bulzu P., Singh A., Shabarova T., Piwosz K., Šimek K. (2025) Morphological and molecular analyses of season-specific responses of freshwater ciliate communities to top-down and bottom-up experimental manipulations. mSystems 10 : e00304-25. DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00304-25
Bulzu P., Henriques Vieira H., Ghai R. (2025) Lineage‑specific expansions of polinton‑like viruses in photosynthetic cryptophytes. Microbiome 13 : 154. DOI: 10.1186/s40168-025-02148-0
Fernandes C., Haber M., Layoun P., Chiriac M., Bulzu P., Ghai R., Kasalický V., Shabarova T., Grossart H., Woodhouse J., Piwosz K., Alonso C., Zanetti J., Hamilton D.P., Ngochera M., Nakano S., Okazaki Y., Salcher M. (2025) Ecophysiology and global dispersal of the freshwater SAR11-IIIb genus Fontibacterium. Nature Microbiology 10 : 2194–2206. DOI: 10.1038/s41564-025-02091-8
Hager K., Luo Z.-H., Montserrat-Diez M., Ponce-Toledo R.I., Baur P., Dahlke S., Andrei A.S., Bulzu P., Ghai R., Urich T., Glatzel S., Schleper C., Rodrigues-Oliveira T. (2025) Diversity and environmental distribution of Asgard archaea in shallow saline sediments. Frontiers in Microbiology 16 : 1549128. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1549128
Mukherjee I., Bulzu P., Boukheloua R., Asghar U., Park H., Henriques Vieira H., Chiriac M., Kasalický V., Znachor P., Rychtecký P., Salcher M., Šimek K., Haber M., Ghai R. (2025) Cultivation, genomics, and giant viruses of a ubiquitous and heterotrophic freshwater cryptomonad. The ISME Journal 19 : wraf271. DOI: 10.1093/ismejo/wraf271
Salcher M., Layoun P., Fernandes C., Chiriac M., Bulzu P., Ghai R., Shabarova T., Lanta V., Callieri C., Sonntag B., Posch T., Lepori F. , Znachor P., Haber M. (2025) Bringing the uncultivated microbial majority of freshwater ecosystems into culture. Nature Communications 16 : 7971. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63266-9
Boukheloua R., Mukherjee I., Park H., Šimek K., Kasalický V., Ngochera M., Grossart H., Picazo-Mozo A., Camacho A. , Cabello-Yeves P.J., Rodriguez-Valera F. , Callieri C., Andrei A.S., Pernthaler J., Posch T., Alfreider A., Sommaruga R., Hahn M., Sonntag B., López-García P., Moreira D., Jardillier L., Lepère C., Biderre-Petit C., Bednarska A., Ślusarczyk M., Tóth V.R., Banciu H.L., Kormas K., Orlić S., Śantić D., Muyzer G., Herlemann D.P.R., Tammert H., Bertilsson S., Langenheder S., Zechmeister T. , Salmaso N., Storelli N., Capelli C., Lepori F. , Lanta V., Henriques Vieira H., Kostanjšek F., Kabeláčová K., Chiriac M., Haber M., Shabarova T., Rychtecký P., Fernandes C., Znachor P., Szöke-Nagy T., Layoun P., Wong H., Kavagutti V., Bulzu P., Salcher M., Piwosz K., Ghai R. (2024) Global freshwater distribution of Telonemia protists. The ISME Journal 18 : wrae177. DOI: 10.1093/ismejo/wrae177
Henriques Vieira H., Bulzu P., Kasalický V., Haber M., Znachor P., Piwosz K., Ghai R. (2024) Isolation of a widespread giant virus implicated in cryptophyte bloom collapse. The ISME Journal 18 : wrae029. DOI: 10.1093/ismejo/wrae029
Park H., Bulzu P., Shabarova T., Kavagutti V., Ghai R., Kasalický V., Jezberová J. (2024) Uncovering the genomic basis of symbiotic interactions and niche adaptations in freshwater picocyanobacteria. Microbiome 12 : 150. DOI: 10.1186/s40168-024-01867-0
Serra Moncadas L., Hofer C., Bulzu P., Pernthaler J., Andrei A.S. (2024) Freshwater genome-reduced bacteria exhibit pervasive episodes of adaptive stasis. Nature Communications 15 : 3421. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47767-7
Wong H., Bulzu P., Ghai R., Chiriac M., Salcher M. (2024) Ubiquitous genome streamlined Acidobacteriota in freshwater environments. ISME Communications 4 : ycae124. DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycae124
Bogdan D.F., Baricz A.I., Chiciudean I., Bulzu P., Cristea A., Năstase-Bucur R., Levei E.A., Cadar O., Sitar C., Banciu H.L., Moldovan O.T. (2023) Diversity, distribution and organic substrates preferences of microbial communities of a low anthropic activity cave in North-Western Romania. Frontiers in Microbiology 14 : 962452. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.962452
Haidau C., Bulzu P., Mirea I.C., Bucur R., Moldovan O.T. (2023) Potential environmental drivers of fossil bones degradation—a metabarcoding approach in two Carpathian caves. Geomicrobiology Journal 40 : 654–666. DOI: 10.1080/01490451.2023.2227625
Kavagutti V., Bulzu P., Chiriac M., Salcher M., Mukherjee I., Shabarova T., Grujčić V., Mehrshad M., Kasalický V., Andrei A.S., Jezberová J., Seďa J., Rychtecký P., Znachor P., Šimek K., Ghai R. (2023) High‑resolution metagenomic reconstruction of the freshwater spring bloom. Microbiome 11 : 15. DOI: 10.1186/s40168-022-01451-4
Moldovan O.T., Carrell A.A., Bulzu P., Levei E., Bucur R., Sitar C., Faur L., Mirea I.C., Șenila M., Cadar O., Podar M. (2023) The gut microbiome mediates adaptation to scarce food in Coleoptera. Environmental Microbiome 18 : 80. DOI: 10.1186/s40793-023-00537-2
Theodorescu M., Bucur R., Faur L., Levei E.A., Bulzu P., Mirea I.C., Cadar O., Ferreira R.L., Souza‑Silva M., Moldovan O.T. (2023) Environmental drivers of the Moonmilk microbiome diversity in some temperate and tropical caves. Microbial Ecology 86 : 2847–2857. DOI: 10.1007/s00248-023-02286-8
Bulzu P., Kavagutti V., Andrei A.S., Ghai R. (2022) The evolutionary kaleidoscope of rhodopsins. mSystems 7 : e00405-22. DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00405-22
Chiriac M., Bulzu P., Andrei A.S., Okazaki Y., Nakano S., Haber M., Kavagutti V., Layoun P., Ghai R., Salcher M. (2022) Ecogenomics sheds light on diverse lifestyle strategies in freshwater CPR. Microbiome 10 : 84. DOI: 10.1186/s40168-022-01274-3
Bulzu P., Kavagutti V., Chiriac M., Vavourakis C.D. , Inoue K. , Kandori H. , Andrei A.S., Ghai R. (2021) Heliorhodopsin evolution is driven by photosensory promiscuity in monoderms. mSphere 6 : e00661-21. DOI: 10.1128/mSphere.00661-21
Saha S., Bulzu P., Urajová P., Mareš J., Konert G., Manoel J.C., Macho M. , Ewe D., Hrouzek P., Masojídek J., Ghai R., Sourav K. (2021) Quorum-sensing signals from epibiont mediate the induction of novel microviridins in the mat-forming cyanobacterial genus Nostoc. mSphere 6 : e00562-21. DOI: 10.1128/mSphere.00562-21

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MSc. Paul-Adrian Bulzu, Ph.D.

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